An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Sixty-Two

On my way to lunch from Umbridge's office, I found Harry being escorted in that direction by Filch. I raised my eyebrows at him, silently asking if he needed a bail out, and he just shrugged. He seemed fine, and based on my interaction with Umbridge, I felt pretty confident he was just going to get the same questioning I got. After everything we'd been through, I also trusted him to figure out the veritaserum trick on his own. I shot him a wink as we passed each other, and his shoulders visibly relaxed.

I smiled to myself, imagining the frustration in Umbridge's future when she got the same answers out of Harry that she'd just gotten out of me. My smile got even wider and I picked up a skip in my step when I thought about the mystery prank the twins had planned for the lunch break. I couldn't wait to see what it was, and since I hadn't been delayed that long by Umbridge, I'd probably still be able to help them put it into action.

I got so lost in my own imagination that I ran smack into someone when I went a little too quickly around a corner. I stepped back as the person caught me with hands on my arms to find the surprised face of my boyfriend staring back at me.

"Cedric! Hi! Thanks for the save," I said with a beaming smile.

"Alexa! I'm glad I found you, I was looking for you."

"What's up?"

"I... I wanted to talk to you. The whole school's buzzing with stories about what happened last night, and... I'm not sure what's true and what's not, but obviously some of it is. I thought I should come and talk to you."

I bit my lip, then nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's go."

With that, the two of us ducked through the familiar passageways until we found a nice empty classroom to set up in. Cedric started putting up all the spells to keep us from being interrupted, while I conjured a more comfortable seating arrangement than the classroom chairs. We settled in facing each other, my legs across Cedric's lap, and I took a deep breath.

"So... I mean, what do you want to know?"

"I want to know what happened, Alexa. And I want to know if you're alright."

I nodded, reaching up to brush a bit of his hair back out of his face.

"I'm fine, Ced. Obviously not amazing, with the change in leadership here. And actually, people haven't really been talking about this part that I've heard, but... I got another knife in the back from Percy Weasley. But I'm not hurt, and I'm not at risk of getting kicked out."

Cedric let out a long sigh, pulling me tighter to him with an arm around my waist. We sat like that for a few moments, taking comfort in each other, until finally Cedric spoke again.

"So what did happen?"

"Well..." I hesitated, thinking through all the details of the night. It hadn't even been a week since Cedric and I's 'plausible deniability' conversation, and some things had happened in that room that would put him in a very, very hard position if he came under fire for the things he knew. But on the other hand, I really didn't want to keep anything from him.

I landed on starting with the official story, the one Dumbledore had sold the Ministry on. Cedric obviously also knew we'd been having DA meetings for most of the school year, and he also knew the club had been created by us, not by Dumbledore. But I explained how Dumbledore had argued his version, using the Ministry's own lack of evidence to sell it.

"But what about Marietta?" he asked, frowning as I finished my story. "Did she have a change of heart?"

I snorted. "No. Sneak is a kind word for her backstabbing."